ekumen // micro-community // sound art
Montreal


Micro-community
ekumen.com is a web site dedicated to the dissemination of information, and of the work of creation and research accomplished by artists working mainly in the area of sound cration.


History
Designed by Nicolas Bernier in October 2002, the first version of the ekumen web site was meant to be his personal site, dedicated to his own professional activities. However, being eager to promote the work of other creators from whom he appreciates the work, and with whom he keeps fulfilling relationships, Nicolas chooses, in the fall of 2005, to redefine ekumen’s nature and mission. He then decides to widen its scope in order to convert it into a collective web site. And so, in January 2006, the unveiling of this new web site marks the culmination of an expansion period, which brings about, by the same impulse, the birth of a micro-community.


The residents of ekumen
Who are the residents of ekumen.com? They operate in the areas of design, video, of installation and of music. However, they all have in common, and as their main source of questioning, the sound reality.

Ekumen [oekoumene]
What does it mean? This word comes from the Greek: oikoumenê. By this term, the ancient Greeks were speaking about the inhabited Earth, the Earth understood in her global aspect, this vast field made of multiple strata forming the horizon of the human daily adventure. Springing from this word we find the adjective ecumenical, which is more widely known, and is also used to underline the nature of universality, of wholeness, of a fact, an idea, a thing. Finally, analogically, this term refers to the very nature of something that has the capacity to unite that which is different, be it people or ideologies.

Original text: Jean-François Dessureault
Translation : Joanne Rousseau